Paul --

Congratulations on your weight loss!

I have a reference to a journal article for you to show your doctor regarding the question of low-carb dieting giving false results on GTT's (glucose tolerance tests).

Here is a link to the extract:

http://journal.med.tohoku.ac.jp/1891/189107.html

"Impairment of Glucose Tolerance in Normal Adults Following a Lowered Carbohydrate Intake."

authors: PEY-YU WANG, TAKASHI KANEKO, YUAN WANG, MASATO TAWATA1 and AKIO SATO

Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1999, 189 (1)

"Some normal people are falsely classified as having impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) if they are given an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) when their last meal contained very few carbohydrates. In this study, the duration of carbohydrate restriction was extended to one and three days and the relationship between the carbohydrate restriction and the glucose tolerance after an OGTT was examined. Two different groups of normal subjects were placed on high-carbohydrate (80% carbohydrates) and low-carbohydrate (10%) diets before an OGTT; one group for one day and the other for 3 days ....

The longer the period of carbohydrate restriction, the severer was the glucose tolerance impairment....

The impairment of glucose tolerance after carbohydrate restriction may be associated with the Randle effect, which is the activation of the glucose-free fatty acid cycle."

© 1999 Tohoku University Medical Press


I don't have other links, but I am sure I have read elsewhere that it is important to eat a "normal" (i.e. high carb) diet for 2-3 days before a GTT.

It may be that you DO have impaired GT or even diabetes, but your results really may have been skewed by the low-carb diet.

I agree with the other advice you have been given:

1) get a monitor and start testing yourself throughout the day
2) ask your doctor to order a Hemoglobin A1c test
3) get a copy of Dr. Bernstein's book and read it cover-to-cover

Regards,
Marjorie